Really great link, Seedfork! Thanks.
I was surprised that they left "leaching by rainfall" until the end ... especially coming from WSU! I figure that half the goodies in my raw materials exit the piles straight down. Oh, well, I relocated my pile into the middle of some bushes that will benefit thereby.
In some theoretical perfect world, I would locate a big new pile each year on top of some poor soil that was scheduled to become my next raised bed. Let the pile leach and elluviate into that soil for a year, and then use the enriched soil as a base for the next bed.
>> Also, studies indicated that nitrogen conservation decreased rapidly as the C:N ratio increased from 40 to 50.
I always figured that if I ran my pile "extra lean", the extra C would force microbes to scavenge and conserve N. But that link's numbers suggest that even a moderate excess of available C is enough to minimze losses of N.
>> Ammonia escapes as ammonia hydroxide as the pH rises above 7.0.
I knew that was why most people say "never add lime to a pile". I agree that lime or wood ashes are only desirable if you start out VERY acid.
>> turn only as often as necessary to maintain aerobic conditions and control flies.
I mostly agree with that. But I would add "and to return the dried outer layers to the inside of the pile where they will become moist and resume decomposition".
(Probably you casn get faster results if you rake the dried outer layers away from an old pile and move them to a newer pile, so the remainder of the older pile can more quickly become "all finished". Sometimes when I have a bigger than usual heap, I make it elongated and add new matierals to one end, but remove finsihed compost from the toher end. Frequently I'll rake the dry, unfinsihed outer layers from the "old" end back to the "young" end and mix them in. I figure that also provides continuous re-innoculation of active microbes into the fresh material.
>> Also, addition of soil to compost with high ammonia content absorbed some of the nitrogen.
Good to know!
